2K9 is one of my favorite 2k's of all time, but I never owned it for the PC. To my delight, it was still being sold on Amazon. So I bought one, and got all pumped up! Once received, I put the disc in my cd rom, anxiously awaiting running with my Iverson/Melo Nuggets, only to be prompted to enter my CD key. No big deal, right? Well, the CD Key wasn't included. So, I contacted the retailer and asked if they had it, they said no... and gave me a refund and let me keep the disc because they dubbed it "Useless"

I said to myself "Okay, lets try again". So I bought the game from a different retailer on Amazon, got it... and was really pumped. Put it in my CD ROM, same thing happened. No key either. Contacted the retailer, they said they didn't have one.

So I am sitting here with two NBA 2K9's for the PC. I decided to contact 2K support, they told me that I was out of luck and they don't supply CD Keys for that game anymore.

So I contact STEAM support, and am waiting to hear back.

When 2K9 was first released, they admitted to an issue where they sent out a bunch of 2K9 games with no CD keys. So now I am wondering.... will I have to keep purchasing 2K9 games for the PC until finally one has a CD key with it? Or will Steam Support help me?

Stay tuned...

"I don't know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody - somewhere - was practicing more than me." - Larry Bird

I had a similar adventure picking up NBA 2K9 some years back. Someone was selling it on eBay because their kid changed their mind, but as it happened, they'd already activated the key. They apologised and issued me a refund. No problem, it happens. I later found a new, sealed copy on eBay, and bought it. Fortunately, it did have an unused key, so all good on the second attempt.

At this point, it may be a case of luck of the draw. If eBay is an option, maybe you could look there as well as Amazon? As I said, I was lucky the second time around, when I picked up a brand new, sealed copy.

STEAM support got back to me and told me they couldn't help me because I "didn't buy the game through Steam". Which makes no sense... it's still a game that requires Steam Support, as it cant be played without a Steam CD key.

"I don't know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody - somewhere - was practicing more than me." - Larry Bird

I guess it's technically not purchased through the Steam store, even though it's activated there, hence their inability to help. Unfortunate.

Definitely don't buy used, that's where I got caught the first time. Well, the description made it sound like it was never played after being opened, but unfortunately the key had been activated. I'm guessing they didn't know how that all worked and they did give me a full refund, so no harm done. But yeah, it's going to be luck of the draw with a new, sealed copy I'd imagine. If you can find it cheap on eBay, it might be a better bet than Amazon, but obviously there's still some risk there. Hope you can find a copy!